Ruben Guisson

VITO contributes to a more sustainable and efficient seaweed industry through its work in the QualiSea project. The research focused on two key areas: innovative seaweed preservation techniques and the design of optimised supply chains.

At the Umicore site in Hoboken, precious metals and other valuable metals are recovered from devices and waste substances that have been disposed of. Activity there is buzzing: tons of raw materials are being moved around on a surface area of 110 hectares, which means many transport journeys. In order to better organise these journeys, the company called upon VITO’s help, which offers a service for analysing and optimising supply chains and logistical flows called MooV. Umicore was able to map out and reduce the number of transport journeys on the site, meaning there is also less dust blowing about resulting from loading and unloading. The collaboration provided some new ideas, that Umicore will put into practice.

Every year, an estimated 427 000 tonnes of grass is cut in Flemish roadsides and nature reserves. Today, this grass is mostly composted; in addition, part of it remains at the place where it is cut. However, it could also be used as a building block for various products such as insulation material, fertiliser, biogas or paper. Transport and logistics are an important part of the cost here - of around €45-70/tonne. VITO researchers were commissioned by the Circular Economy Policy Research Center to find out how this grass can be optimally mobilised into our circular economy in various scenarios.